Oil Falls as Omicron Back in News; China Refiners Balk at Saudi Prices By Investing.com – Investing.com

Oil Falls as Omicron Back in News; China Refiners Balk at Saudi Prices By Investing.com – Investing.com

© Reuters.

By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com - Oil prices fell 2% on Thursday, giving back some of this week’s heady gains, as Covid-19’s Omicron variant returned to the headlines and as Chinese refiners apparently balked at higher prices demanded for crude to be delivered from January by the Saudis.

From Europe to Asia, governments reinstated restrictions to limit the spread of the latest coronavirus strain, with Britain ordering people to work from home again, Denmark closing schools early and limiting hours for restaurants and bars and China halting tourist trips from Guangdong.

It was the latest measure of frustration for oil bulls who thought Omicron was no longer a factor in markets after assuring talk over the weekend by global medical experts, including top U.S. virologist Dr. Anthony Fauci, that the variant’s effects might not be as severe as initially feared. Pfizer (NYSE:) and its partner BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:) had also said this week that three doses of their vaccine could neutralize Omicron.

But news on Thursday showed that Omicron was 4.2 times more transmissible than the Delta variant, which led to a resurgence in hospitalizations and deaths around the world. What’s not known is the fatality